Poop buster
It seems to work, didn’t see dog poo on the sidewalks we walked on. I’m thinking of proposing this for Montague, or simply a sign for my neighbour.
Kelake : Clark MacLeod's banal weblog
Clark MacLeod's banal weblog
Latest posts
Airport Limitations
I'm sitting at a Tim Hortons in Montreal Airport, which feels familiar -- we were here a couple of weeks ago under similar circumstances. We arrived from Dublin and were funneled through some makeshift security corridor to reach our gate, like walking through the inside of an old mall, dark corridors and weird doors, except punctuated by about five layers of security. I'm tired and crotchety, and…
Connections
Yesterday I was hiking with Sheryl up a cliff near a northern suburb of Dublin when my doorbell rang -- a delivery back home. I could see the car on the camera and asked the driver to leave the package at the door. A little further along the trail, I mentioned to my daughter Catriona that someone had come by. She was on a call with someone on the other side of the world. Today I was in a pub in…
Seventy Flavours, Vanilla
Sheryl and I went to Read by the Sea earlier this month — nice, if far too short. Apple Maps took us on a route I'd never been on, and Sheryl hadn't seen since she was a kid. Read by the Sea was held in River John , a small place I'd never heard of. You can get there via Route 6, which follows the coast through some pleasantly narrow roads from the Caribou ferry. The actual highlight of the day…
Air Canada Morass
I am sitting at Starbucks in the Ottawa airport, listening to cheers from the restaurant nearby as Spain looks set to win. We came to Ottawa for the weekend -- an unusual choice, but we haven't been here in years, and the winter and spring in Montague felt long. I needed to get off the Island. An expensive mental break, but a needed one. Unfortunately, Air Canada had other plans. Flights out of…
First Hyrox
Camren and I had a good time suffering through the heat.
Disappearing craft
I set up a daily task in ChatGPT and while it has only performed it once, I'm a bit surprised by its usefulness. It finds articles and insights across the web tailored to my professional interests, summarizes them, and gives me actionable insight on each one. That's far more useful than Google Alerts, an RSS feed reader, or other methods I have tried. The downside is that it takes me farther and…
Work ethic
Eight years back in Canada, and most of the reverse culture shock has faded. So have the memories — or at least the complicated ones. What remains is mostly romanticized: fruit stands on every corner, the food, more food, the general modernity of life in Taiwan and China. But twenty years shapes you in ways that don't fade as quickly. Lately I've been thinking about work — specifically about how I…
A long bout
I sat down at the table, coffee prepared, iPad open, white page waiting. I'd already written in my diary — which is like a warm-up before a marathon — and I was ready. But nothing came. Or more likely I didn't want anything to come, so I set new writing aside for another day. The weather has been wonderful, and the gap has filled itself with other things. Physical, sweaty things: running in the…
Everything before this tool was real art. Everything after it is cheating.
From Seth Godin who appears to be making a case for including AI in the creative process: Real artists do all the painting themselves, not like Rembrandt Real artists use brushes, not technology like Cartier-Bresson Real writers write it out by hand, not like Jack Kerouac Real musicians record it live, not like Steely Dan Real singers sing without processing, not like Kanye West and Daft Punk Real…
Rainy day thoughts
For me the day starts with quiet and coffee. Time to prepare slowly for what's ahead. It takes about 5 minutes to make good coffee, a little longer to open the book I'm learning from - the second habit of the day, reading to learn. Lately the house has been noisy and so has my mind. I have no patience for good coffee, and it takes much longer to open the book. I read but I'm not reading. I'm not…
Mobs
Some quick and disjointed thoughts. I am sitting here looking out my dining room window at blue skies and swaying trees, devoid of any interest in writing. I need to write — that's the rule. Maybe I should abandon the story I can't seem to progress on and return to an old trope. At least something will get done. My lack of desire might also have something to do with a brief flirtation with the…
Authenticity
I am reading Creative Authenticity by Ian Roberts. I’ve only just started, so I haven’t made up my mind about it yet — perhaps it will improve as I wade deeper. One quote from the first chapter on searching for beauty aligns with my thinking of late: “Beauty doesn’t flourish in a culture that honors the bottom line above all. How can a significant architecture result when a corporation’s quarterly…
21k
Sheryl and I drove to Fredericton on Saturday so I could run the marathon yesterday. It’s a long drive — four hours feels like a journey these days — but we arrived with plenty of time to walk the whole downtown. Finding somewhere to eat proved difficult, and we ultimately ended up at some nondescript pub where I ate something purposefully bland. I’ve been having trouble with my stomach, and it…
Frog hops
I was reminded of public school gym class last week. There is not a lot I remember about it other than emotion — the feeling of embarrassment for not earning an award, like the Standard of Excellence or some such. Bronze, silver, and gold as well, I think. This was a completely different age, where rope climbing and a general lack of accommodation for different abilities were simply the norm. Rope…
Back On After A Bit
There are a number of adjustments we’ve made since moving home, back to the old country. I think of PEI the way characters in films or books talk about returning to some small town in Italy or a quiet corner of Europe after decades living in what was once considered modern — America. PEI is quaint, quiet, and slow. Which can be nice. I know I’ve written somewhere about how the medical system fails…
Saturday morning cartoons
I haven't quite made up my mind about AI. I am influenced by many who think it's a greater scourge on our lives than any technology previously introduced, and I'm not entirely sure they're wrong. Working alone, though, I do find it has some uses — mostly in being able to run ideas past it, particularly when it reminds me to suspend my desire to tell partners they are wrong in ways that don't…
Memories
I have had the pleasure of interacting with a great many writers these past couple of years, many of whom are interested in memoir. Writing, I have seen, is a creative pursuit that people put off most of their lives until they reach an age where their schedules open up and allow them to work on things that have no relation to family or work responsibilities. Memoir is not something I have a great…
Mostly About Groceries
I'm reading On Writing And Failure by Stephen Marche — it's a book you could finish over a couple of cups of coffee if you're so inclined. One of its benefits is that it was published in 2023 — newer than most books on writing or the creative life I've read. Even only two-thirds of the way through, during my morning coffee, I find it capable of giving new perspective on what I'm so fortunate to…
True story
From an email I sent out earlier. We live in an old, rickety house on a small lot - about seven-tenths of an acre - up on a hill by the Montague River in Brudenell. The house and property are over 125 years old. Trees on one side, the river and trees on the other. Last year, before the snow set in, a couple of trees came down in high winds. One landed across our red shed. Another old tree on the…